This Daily Devotion is to help our members and others reflect on the understanding of Christian service to our Lord.
Devotion for Thursday, January 25, 2024
The Rt. Rev. Archimandrite, Msgr. George Appleyard
An Invitation to Prayer
“Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.” Matt 5:7
– The path of justice and mercy leads to life and glory.
Prov 21:21
Set us on that road, O Lord!
Psalm 63/64
Hear my prayer, O God,
when I make my supplication to you.
Deliver my soul from fear of the enemy.
You protected me from a mob of the wicked,
from a crowd doing wrong,
who jab with their tongues like a sword.
What a cruel deed! They have bent their bow
to shoot an innocent person from under cover.
They are not afraid to ambush him suddenly.
They encourage each other with their evil talk;
they plan how to set the traps,
saying, who is going to notice?
They went looking for lawlessness,
and made a thorough search for it.
But someone with a good heart will come forward
and God will be praised.
Their blows will be like the jabs of careless children,
and their tongues will be powerless against him.
All who saw were troubled
and everyone was afraid,
and recognized the work of God,
seeing what he had done.
A just person will delight in the Lord, and hope in him,
and all the upright in heart will be commended.
A reading adapted from Basil’s, Homily on Proverbs 1:1-5
As the Scripture says, “Some have made shipwreck of their faith.”1 Tim 1:19 Here is a wretched sight: after fasting, after living an austere life, after intense prayer, after copious tears, after being continent for some twenty or thirty years, to be stripped of it all by the soul’s inattention and negligence. A person who once abounded in the profits we earn by keeping the commandments is like an extraordinarily wealthy merchant who is overjoyed when his ship is carried by a fair wind. But then he crosses the terrifying seas only to have his ship dashed to pieces in the harbor and to be deprived of everything. What he came to have by innumerable efforts and a great deal of work he loses in a single attack by the demon and is sunk by sin as if by a hurricane. This should be the confession of such a one, “I have entered the depths of the sea, and a tempest overwhelmed me.”Ps 68:3
A Prayer
O Sovereign Lord, teach me what I should hold onto and save, and what I should reject or give away. Teach me how to provide for my loved ones properly, and still be generous with those in need. Let me begin by paying just wages, paying my taxes fairly and then to steer into the deeper waters of charity and-setting a static justice aside-show the mercy I hope to receive from you in due time.
Amen!